Most Americans Lack Savings To Pay For These Huge Emergencies

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WWR Article Summary (tl;dr)A 2017 GOBankingRates survey found that more than half of adults have less than $1,000 in savings. Simply put, a majority of Americans are unprepared for life‘s curveballs.
GOBankingRates.com

What would happen if you were hit with a financial emergency, a job loss, major medical expense or even a car repair? Would you have enough cash on hand to get through that emergency?

If you’re like most Americans, you probably would have a hard time paying for an unexpected expense.

A 2017 GOBankingRates survey found that more than half of adults have less than $1,000 in savings. However, GOBankingRates wanted to find out whether Americans have enough money today to cover future emergencies. So, we surveyed more than 2,000 adults across the U.S. to find out what sort of savings they have to take care of the unexpected.

GOBankingRates asked survey respondents whether they have enough saved to cover car repairs, medical emergencies and six months’ worth of living expenses if they lost a job. The findings weren’t encouraging: More than half of Americans still don’t have enough saved to cover common financial emergencies.

When it comes to savings to cover expenses in the event of a job loss, 38 percent of respondents have less than $1,000. More than a quarter (27 percent) of respondents actually have $10,000 or more saved. But even that might not be enough to survive a job loss for six months.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual household spending in the U.S. is $57,311. Based on that amount, the average emergency fund should be $28,656, enough to cover six months of expenses.

Americans have even less set aside for car repairs and medical expenses. Nearly 23 percent of respondents have less than $100 saved for car repairs, and more than half have less than $1,000 saved.